The fruit swells into a balloon, and inside it looks like a dumpling is hiding

About the author: One Hand Brush One Hand Flower: Landscape architecture major, has deeply loved plants and nature since childhood, hopes to keep working in plant-related fields all her life; in this world, only beautiful flowers and delicious food are not to be let down, Weibo @One Hand Brush One Hand Flower

Hairy Balls is an interesting plant, with ingenious flowers and curious fruit, utterly fascinating.

Previously I had only seen it in flower shops, where the staff called it balloon fruit and sold it as a cut flower. Now some parks in southern provinces also plant Hairy Balls as a landscaping plant. As a landscaping plant, it is not only interesting in its own growth, but can also attract many kinds of butterflies, bringing surprises to visitors.

I once thought that the balloon cotton bush (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) and Hairy Balls (G. fruticosus) were one and the same thing in the genus Gomphocarpus of the family Asclepiadaceae, with no difference. Later, after seeing the Weibo post of the expert @Nanmen Yeke, I learned that there are at least two kinds of Hairy Balls: "The balloon cotton bush and Hairy Balls are very closely related; the fruit of the balloon cotton bush is relatively round, and the balloon fruit and sugar cotton commonly used in floral art are generally this one; the fruit of Hairy Balls tapers at the end, like a bird's beak."

I could not help imagining that the "blunt" one is that pointed beak hammered flat. From this it can be seen that the round, plump balloons I usually see are all balloon cotton bush.

[1] Hairy Balls By Bernard DUPONT, CC BY-SA 2.0

[2] Balloon cotton bush By Amatulic, CC BY-SA 3.0

The balloon cotton bush is an evergreen shrub, with slender leaves like willow leaves; its fruit is famous, and its flowers are also ingeniously formed. The cyme grows in the leaf axils; the clusters I saw had anywhere from three to nine flowers, with seven being the most common, and the flowers arranged into a triangle or even an approximately equilateral triangle, full of mathematical beauty. Before the flowers open they swell into little five-pointed stars; after blooming they are even more splendid, with five pure white petals whose edges are densely covered in fine down, and a purple-pink corona in the shape of a pouch, which makes the whole flower three-dimensional.

On some plants the flowers have not yet finished blooming, while on others the fruit has gradually begun to swell. The outer pericarp is covered with many soft spines, like rows of nails inserted into it, which may be the origin of the name "Hairy Balls." That inflated fruit is like a blown-up balloon, hence the alias balloon fruit; it also resembles a puffed-up pufferfish, hence the name pufferfish fruit. All these various names tell of this plump, bulging cuteness.

Such a unique fruit, do you not want to know what structure is inside? Anyway, I was quite curious; if you hold it in your hand and squeeze it, will it leak air? I wanted to poke this balloon open and see the wonders inside. What follows is my process of tearing open a balloon cotton bush by hand. As soon as the fruit was separated from the branch, rich sap immediately flowed out, milky white, like milk, sticky; tearing open the thin green outer coat, inside there was unexpectedly a furry dumpling living there; peeling open the dumpling wrapper, inside was sesame filling; in the unripe state, what was wrapped inside was white sesame. One fruit, one world; one ball, one dumpling.

The flowers arranged in a triangle, the fruit swelling into a balloon, and inside the balloon lives a dumpling: this is the marvelous balloon cotton bush~

Note: The sap of Hairy Balls may cause allergies or poisoning. If touched, please wash your hands promptly. People prone to allergies and children should avoid contact.

[1] By Bernard DUPONT,CC BY-SA 2.0

[2] By Amatulic, CC BY-SA 3.0

Author: One Hand Brush One Hand Flower

Images: One Hand Brush One Hand Flower, Jiang Mouren

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